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PAUL AUSTER'S eighth novel, Mr. Vertigo (Viking), tells the fantastic tale of vaudeville sensation Walt the Wonder Boy, a young orphan who, under the Svengali-like tutelage of the mysterious Master Yehudi, learns to fly.

Also this month: DAVID HALBERSTAM'S October 1964 (Villard) recounts the final season of the great Yankee dynasty. First-time novelist CAROL O'CONNELL delivers goose bumps in her suspenseful Mallory's Oracle (Putnam). The short stories in KEVIN CANTY'S striking debut collection, A Stranger in This World (Doubleday), map the territory between disillusionment and salvation. KEN KESEY and prankster in arms KEN BABBS dish up a dime-store Western in Last Go Round (Viking). In A Woman's Life: The Story of an Ordinary American and Her Extraordinary Generation (Morrow), SUSAN CHEEVER charts the course of an "ordinary" woman through the 1960s haze of commune living to the mainstream. The second volume of MARTIN STANNARD'S biography, Evelyn Waugh: The Later Years 1939-1966 (Norton), documents the writer's life from World War II to his death. Bunny Bunny (Villard) is ALAN ZWEIBEL'S tribute to his friend Gilda Radner. JAMES KAPLAN probes every inch of J.F.K. International's underbelly in The Airport (Morrow). OLIVIA GOLDSMITH'S novel Fashionably Late (HarperCollins) takes a snarky swing at the fashion industry. Brecht & Company (Grove) is JOHN FUEGI'S study of the charismatic playwright and director through the lens of 1 his paramours and peers. Dancing in the Street: Confessions of a Motown Diva (Hyperion) is the autobiography of MARTHA REEVES, of Vandella fame, co-authored by MARK BEGO. JURATE KAZICKAS and LYNN SHERR'S Susan B. Anthony Slept Here (Times Books) is an enlightening tour of American women's landmarks. LYNN SNOWDEN didn't research roping dogies for Nine Lives (Norton), but she did try her hand at nine traditional female occupations, from substitute teacher to stripper. And in his historical novel Henry and Clara (Ticknor & Fields) THOMAS MALLON muses about the lives of the young marrieds who were seated in President Lincoln's box at Ford's Theatre on that fateful night.

ELISSA SCHAPPELL